IBM at Apple's throat
- TAGS:Apple, chip, IBM, iPhone, iPod, IT executive, Mark Papermaster, non-compete
- IT TOPICS:Careers, Devices, Hardware, Macintosh, Management
In Monday's IT Blogwatch, we wonder: where and when will Papermaster work? Not to mention geek jewelry...
Philip Michaels introduces us:
Apple introduced Mark Papermaster as its new senior vice president of devices hardware engineering this week. But the former IBM executive won’t be able to start work at Apple any time soon after his former employer won an injunction from a U.S. District judge in New York.
Both Bloomberg and Reuters are reporting that U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas has told Papermaster to “immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court.” IBM had sought the injunction citing an agreement with Papermaster in which he would not work with any competitor for a year after leaving the Armonk, N.Y.-based tech giant.
Seth Weintraub has a question:
Non-compete agreements are often unlawful (especially in California) because they basically make skilled workers into indentured servants. Papermaster isn't going to be able to get a job in Public Relations after building computer components for 25 years. Any company that makes computer components could be considered a competitor. Is he supposed to go work for a company that doesn't make computers? .
The Edible Apple takes a bite:
Papermaster, a server expert and chip guru, was recently sued by IBM to prevent him from going to work at Apple. IBM asserts that Papermaster is subject to a non-compete agreement and is prohibited from working at a competing company for a year. Papermaster, however, claims that Apple isn’t a competitor to IBM to the extent that IBM does not manufacture consumer electronics. Furthermore, Papermaster joined Apple as a Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering, and will oversee its iPhone and iPod development..
Arnold Kim peels away the layers:
Papermaster was hired at Apple to replace Fadell as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering. Fortune provides a detailed timeline of the events of Papermaster's recruitment. Steve Jobs is said to have offered Papermaster an offer he couldn't refuse, a "once in a liftetime opportunity". Papermaster accepted the job offer despite a significant counteroffer from IBM..
Aviv avers:
IBM wasn’t very accepting of the chip design expert’s departure.
...
As we’ve previously explained, Papermaster was considered a genius at IBM. He was part of an incredibly talented team and losing him would be devastating for IBM. Besides being an expert in IBM’s Power microprocessor architecture, he was part of an elite Integration & Values team until last month.
Wolfgang Gruener sees a pattern:
Apple has been the destination of for some of important employees of IBM in the past, which could also be a reason for a certain tension between the two companies. For example, Donald Rosenberg, who was senior vice president and general counsel of IBM, joined Apple as senior vice president and general counsel In November of 2006. However, Rosenberg left Apple less than a year later to become executive vice president and general counsel at Qualcomm..
Philip Elmer-DeWitt reads the papers:
a reporter for Information Week plucked this quote out of the 27-page statement and ran with it:
“I do not recall a single instance of Apple being described as a competitor of IBM during my entire tenure at IBM.” (link)
. ...
It turns out that his quote was taken out of context. What the Information Week reporter left out was the part where Papermaster acknowledged that before IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo, and when Apple sold servers to schools, they did in fact compete.
And finally...
Buffer overflow:
- Emergent Chaos: CTO of the United States?
- ElasticVapor : RumorMill: EMC's Atmos Cloud Optimized Storage Launching Nov 10th
- Todd Bishop: Can you solve this Microsoft puzzle?
- Dan Morrill: Facebook is hit by a fast moving Social Engineering Attack
- Barry Whyte: SVC : How it works : part 1 - Terminology
- Marc Weber Tobias: Forensic tool detects pornography in the workplace
Other Computerworld bloggers:
- Dan Tynan: Momma Pajama is not your friend
- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: Hotmail does work--badly--with Linux
- Seth Weintraub: Apple's iPhone beats RIM's Blackberry to number two spot
- Seth Weintraub: Is Microsoft going to adopt Webkit? (yes, but..)
- Robert L. Mitchell: The snap and yawn of e-mail
- John Brandon: The etymology of slang
- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: Why Microsoft is running scared of Linux
- Barbara Krasnoff: Print is dying -- except when history happens
- Doug Schweitzer: Is your head in the clouds?
- Seth Weintraub: AT&T's Ralph de la Vega spills future iPhone plans
- Shark Tank: Predictions, anyone?
- Shark Bait: How To Get A Girlfriend If You're A Hopeless Nerd
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Your usual blogwatcher, Richi Jennings, is not competing this week. So sue him. Joyce Carpenter filed today's report.
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
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